AstronomyTeacher

The story so far:
1. We derived Newton's form of Kepler's Third Law using the equations for gravity and centripetal force. Then we solved the equation for the mass of the parent body.

Kepler's Third law: P^2 = a^3.

Newton's form of Kepler's Third Law: P^2 = (4pi^2/GM) r^3
Note, r = a when the orbit is circular.

G = 6.67x10^-11.

2. We learned how to measure positions using the HOU software called "Image Processing." We opened pictures taken by Harlan Devore's class one at a time, then used the HOU function "axes" to get x and y coordinates for Saturn and Titan. Using Starry Night, we verified which star was which in the photograph, and identified Titan.

Students were instructed to make a table of x,y positions for both Saturn and Titan, and to record the UT date and time of each photograph.

Here is a link to some already published research: Untitled Document using these photos. The photos were taken by Cape Fear Natural Science academy students in Fayetteville, North Carolina. Our method of data analysis will be somewhat different, but the basic data gathering steps are the same.